PLEASANT RIDGE — Alan Bernstein was a 6-year-old looking for a coloring book to amuse himself while on vacation when he was drawn to a kooky gap-toothed kid on the cover of MAD magazine.

A fan was born in that California drugstore. Now a 43-year-old filmmaker, Bernstein is working on his own baby: a documentary movie about the history and influence of America’s longest running publication devoted to humor.

“When We Went MAD” will lovingly tell the story of the institution that has delivered a satiric view of American culture for 60 years and counting. Bernstein, the director, and co-producer Doug Gilford of Portland, Ore., have filmed about 20 interviews with former artists, writers and editors so far.

Editor Al Feldstein, who increased circulation to 2 million in the 1970s, explains how MAD started in 1952 — the same year the first hydrogen bomb was detonated — and how the fallout from both affected early readers and generations thereafter.

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“The kids were being told to get under their seats so when a siren went off they would be OK, and the kids were saying you know that’s a lot of crap. I’m going to get turned into dust. So they started to question the adult world,” Feldstein told the documentary makers.

In 1983, 17 years before the anti-smoking movement, MAD started making a mockery of the marketing campaigns for cigarettes. For Bernstein, a 1987 graduate of Groves High School, Birmingham, the ad firms on Madison Avenue gave the MAD men at his favorite magazine some of its best fodder.

In spoofs of ads for True cigarettes, MAD turned the product boxes into tombstones; they also used the slogan for Oasis cigarettes, “Let Oasis take you from the everyday” under the picture of a cemetery.

“Obviously there are no benefits from smoking and MAD really pointed a laser at how the ads showed health benefits and sex appeal. MAD exposed that,” Bernstein said.

He describes his movie as a tribute to the magazine and it’s place in America’s cultural history from the satirical angle.

“MAD didn’t take things seriously but they were truthful,” Bernstein said.

The story of MAD has never really been told through the voices of its creators, Bernstein said. He has a better understanding of why that is after talking to the likes of Al Jaffee, the inventor of the fold-in feature and “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” Dick Debartolo, the Match Game TV show writer whose work is in every issue since 1966; and Sergio Aragones, a MAD cartoonist for 50 years.

“The general consensus I got is we were just doing our job. How would we know if were an influence or not,” Bernstein said.

He knew. When he came across his first MAD magazine, he was hooked. At 6, he enjoyed the Spy v Spy cartoon and the fold-in. He didn’t always understand the jokes but he said he felt like he was holding something special. It got him thinking and wondering.

“I got some of it,” Bernstein said. “MAD cast a wide net in terms of humor with simple four-panel cartoons. Then you got into more serious politics, reviews and movies. Some of it was over my head and that got me to ask questions, like who was Richard Nixon. It was real simple, engaging and you graduated to the next level.”

MAD magazines with their impish schmuck of a mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, were mandatory reading amongst his friends when he was growing up.

“All my guy friends read it or their older brothers or cousins had the magazine,” Bernstein said. “They got passed around. We’d bring them to school and they’d get taken by teachers. Some kids were a little competitive about collecting back issues.”

Bernstein said he went from casual reader to collector to producer of the documentary in need of funding. He has a week to go on a Kickstarter campaign in need of about $22,000 more in donations.

What, him worry?

Yes, a little. Kickstarter is a “crowdfunding” program that uses social media to raise money for everything from publishing books to manufacturing new inventions. Projects get 30 days to reach their funding goals or the backers’ pledges aren’t collected and they get nothing.

On Thursday, “When We Went Mad” had 242 backers pledging $28,138. Bernstein set a goal of $50,000. The documentary makers will use the money for traveling to collect more interviews from entertainers, politicians, teachers and convicts who admit all the MAD-ness influenced them.

“MAD was an equal opportunity mind corrupter and we want to show that!” the Kickstarter appeal says.

The money will go toward equipment rental and post-production costs to make a documentary for the festival circuit.

“I’ve got to admit my fingernails are getting chewed a bit short right now,” Bernstein said before leaving to do an interview himself for a Warren cable program.

For incentives, he offers postcards featuring the work of MAD artist Tom Richmond and “peace of mind knowing you’re helping our cause” to people who pledge $10. Most potential donors — 108 at last check — are pitching in $25 for a personal download of the completed movie. For $50, backers will get a poster by Richmond should the goal be reached.

Two backers are putting up $1,000 each and one is ready to give $10,000, which will be rewarded with a credit in the movie as an executive director. Some of the bigger pledges have been made by former MAD contributors and their relatives, which Bernstein calls humbling.

However, the majority are fans of the so-called “usual gang of idiots” that have exposed the lies of advertisers and knocked mighty politicians off their soapboxes over the decades.

“I’d say 90 percent of them — without taking an exact survey — say they grew up reading MAD and this has been a long time coming,” Bernstein said. “One guy is 70 years old and he’s been reading it since he was a kid. He’s thrilled at the prospect of this.”

The moviemakers are hoping more fans make Kickstarter pledges to allow them to finish what they started three years ago.

A lot of Kickstarter projects pick up steam in the final days. As word spreads about this one, Bernstein said they have one thing going in their favor: “A lot of people ask when was MAD at its best and the answer is whenever you were growing up that was the best.”